The Shadow (The Florentine #2)

by Sylvain Reynard (Goodreads Author)

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Gabriel trilogy comes the hotly anticipated follow-up to The Raven, a sensual novel set in Florence featuring the dangerously intoxicating coupling of Raven and William…

Raven Wood’s vampyre prince has returned, pledging his love and promising justice for every wrong done to her. In the wake of their reunion, Raven is faced with a terrible decision—allow the Prince to wreak vengeance against the demons of her past, or persuade him to stay his hand. But there is far more at stake than Raven’s heart...

A shadow has fallen over the city of Florence. Ispettor Batelli will not rest until he uncovers Raven’s connection to the theft of the priceless art from the Uffizi Gallery. And while the Prince hunts a traitor who sabotages him at every turn, he finds himself the target of the vampyres’ mortal enemy.

As he wages a war on two fronts, he will need to keep his love for Raven secret, or risk exposing his greatest weakness...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25476303-the-shadow?from_search=true&search_version=service

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Source: eARC for Honest Review Courtesy of Berkley | Penguin Group

Genre: PNR Romance

Part 2 in an ongoing series

My The Shadow Review ...

The story goes on for this unlikely duo. It has felt like forever since I read the Raven and some of the details were vague in my mind as I started to read this book. It took me a bit of time to get up to speed. If I had time I would have re-read the Raven but that was not the case.

"I waited my whole life to find you, and now that I have, I'm going to lose you?"

I love the fact that this is paranormal spin off from a contemporary series. The way that they are intertwined is brilliant. William is trying to keep his promise to Raven by not hurting the Emersons but it's hard for him with so much history and betrayal involved.

As William is trying to protect his city from a traitor, he's also fighting for Raven. Raven's becoming stronger and stronger and William's finally letting her in more and more. The more we learn about William the more we see his internal conflict with what he is now and who he was before. His loss of hope and faith are an every day struggle for him, but with loving Raven he learns to balance the sides of himself.

This book has so many layers woven together, that we're continuously trying to figure out what is going on within in the walls of this city. We get to learn more of William's history which helps build the reasons of the shadow as well as the conflict within himself. We also get to see William change and evolve with Raven.

William now has to struggle with a decision between love or his people of the city.

"You're the other half of me, William. Please don't send me away."

At the end of this book we are still left with wanting to know more. We want to know the true story behind Aoibhe and what her motives are.

"You lie as you fornicated, Aoibhe: artfully and forcefully. I have no time for either."

We also want to know if William and Raven can find a balance between their belief systems and their pasts. Even though this book took me a bit to truly get into it, I did eventually get encaptured with the story. I can't wait for more from this series.

4 Shadowing thumbs up!